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Tax myopia cure

19th Nov 2018
Brought to you by
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ProActivTax helps accountants and advisers across the UK be much more successful with all aspects...
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My wife, kids and dog would concur with the consensus that I have not been blessed with the looks, physique, personality and choice of football team (Port Vale) throughout my 58 years on terra firma but that is the complete opposite as regards my 35 year tax career to date. 

Utopia

The firms I have worked for actively encouraged me to develop my interpersonal skills, enhance my tax knowledge and motivated me to take a proactive rather than a reactive tax stance with our clients whilst also enabling me to go out using those skillsets to ameliorate the firms’ tax profile amongst the local community. I was not unique within those accountancy firms, I was one of many.

Why little old me?

Why did the business owners do this for little old me? Was it for purely altruistic reasons? I think there was an element of wanting to help people like me to develop a career in this field but the prime mover was for me to enhance their tax profile, bring in more valued tax work, improve the firm’s bottom line and to keep clients tight to them. All of these things were achieved by these firms adopting this stance.

It is clear that it is very hard for the business owner to get traction on the tax profile front purely off their own back. There are not enough hours in the day. You spread yourself thin and effectively achieve very little apart from heightened stress levels.

How to do it

For your own sake, you should encourage your team to go beyond the normal compliance work, to look at spotting the relevant added value tax advice, whether that be forewarning clients early of an impending unexpected tax charge or mitigating their tax liabilities using the safe confines of the tax legislation. Give the team the tools to be able to do this.

The options are almost unlimited on the tax knowledge front. Put them through the tax exams; provide the technical reading such as AccountingWeb; send them on courses; enable the team to access tax technical webinars and provide training on the tax resources you have within your set up.

Whilst the team are arming themselves with the technical knowledge, hold regular team meetings where that knowledge can be shared. Encourage each team member to mine the client base to see if any of this new-found knowledge is appropriate for particular clients and get them to apply that knowledge with the client.

Open the door for your team to go out into the local community and attend business functions such as BNI, perhaps even doing presentations at these events.

This preferably works alongside other measures such as surrounding yourself with tax specialists either inhouse or on an ad hoc basis. Obtain tax material/videos to put on your website as well as a personalised tax newsletter to roll out to your client and prospect base. Create or bring in your own tax resources covering different areas of tax, which stops you and your team reinventing the wheel and helps to systemise the whole process.

Importantly, don’t be myopic to the values your team can bring to your firm above and beyond the compliance angle. By doing something like this you will have a motivated workforce who will feel valued and very much part of the team. As their self-confidence grows that can only help with their career development but it will naturally have a knock on positive effect on the firm and the tax perception clients and prospects alike will hold as regards the firm. By providing your team with a more stimulating tax work life it can only create greater fulfilment for your clients and the bank balance.    

ProActivTax help accountants across the UK

ProActivTax was set up to help accountants around the UK to develop their tax offering to their existing client base and to build up their tax profile within their local community and beyond.

Our members have access to a whole range of different tax specialists, tune into numerous CPD certificated webinars and seminars as well as being provided with the tax resources plus training to create awareness and provide the numbers across a breath of tax issues/opportunities.

If you would like to find out more please click here to access my online diary or simply drop me an email with some provisional dates and I’ll set up a conference call.

Paul Flynn

Email: [email protected]

Tele: 01246 488 200

Mobile: 07903 799091

Turning Tax Technical issues into commercial reality

ProActivTax Ltd (09540555) 7 Midland Way, Barlborough. Derbyshire. S43 4XA

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